


The Fall of Ideals

by ThatIrishFox (slipknotmaggot33)



Series: Heroes will fall [1]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Angst, Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 13:41:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7510562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slipknotmaggot33/pseuds/ThatIrishFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A routine call brings Nick and Judy face to face with an old nemesis who's sole goal is to break Judy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fall of Ideals

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this work features the death of two cub characters. If that is too dark for you, it'd be best to back out now. 
> 
> This is my first fanfic and I welcome constructive criticism. I wanna thank LovelyMayor for proofing the text and making sure it was good enough to post. 
> 
> There will be a glossary at the end to explain the police codes.

It had started out as another beautiful, if uneventful, day in the city. The morning roll call and briefing began as usual with the howls, roars, and cheers of the officers greeting the Chief who silenced them with his booming voice. Sitting up front next to McHorn and sharing a chair meant for mammals much larger than them were the ZPD’s very own Officers Hopps and Wilde, easily dwarfed by the other officers.

Bogo regarded the group of officers, each one the ZPD’s best and finest, and slid his glasses onto his snout. “Alright, settle down.” He grumbles, “We have a fairly routine day with no major cases so here’s the assignments…” he says, his bass filled voice echoing in the room. “Delgato, Wolford, and Higgins, you have beat patrol in the Sahara Square. Fangmeyer and Trunkerby you get Tundratown. Hopps, Wilde, you have the Rainforest District. The rest of you are on traffic patrol. Dismissed.” The chief finished and closed the file before heading out of the bullpen.

Judy seemed to be as energetic and excited as ever when she looked at her partner, the fox seemingly annoyed to be assigned to the damp heat of the Rainforest District. 

“Ugh…what did I do to piss off Buffalo Butt now?” Nick grumbles, “My fur still hasn’t dried from the last time we patrolled there…” he sighs and rubbed his eyes out of frustration.

Judy stifled a snorting laugh at this, “Oh come on slick, he’s not always out to punish you. Even if you slipped a laxative into his coffee…again…” She says, a playful smirk on her face.

“Oh…right…there’s that.” He shrugs, his usual smug grin returning. “Speaking of coffee, mind if we stop on the way?”

“Oh, I suppose so.” Judy giggles and rolls her eyes. “Come on, let’s go get our cruiser.

Most of their patrol was uneventful, having only to pull a sloth over for driving twenty miles below the speed limit. Even Judy, with her limitless enthusiasm was getting bored, having let out a frustrated sigh before flopping back against the faux leather seat. Nick was about to let out a sarcastic quip when the radio chirped to life. 

“Dispatch to any unit in the vicinity of the Canal District, Code 2.” Said the very peppy voice of Ben Clawhauser, the ZPD’s front desk person and unofficial Mascot.

Judy was so quick to swipe hand-held microphone, Nick could of swore she had teleported. “This is Car 2, Dispatch.”

“Hey JUuuuudy! We got a report in of a B&E as well as a possible 912 at Warehouse 1 on Kapok Street. We’ve been asked to send an officer.” 

“10-4 Dispatch, on our way.” She responds eagerly and starts up the car, the motor revving angrily as she stepped on the gas and crosses over the bridge to the canal district. 

The duo arrived quickly at the building, looking through the windshield at the seemingly abandoned structure. “Why would anyone want to break in here?” Nick mutters, eyeing the leaky roof and the rather run-down look of the building.

“Who knows, but the property still has an owner and he wants us to look in to it. It’s probably a homeless mammal that we just need to shoo to the shelter.” Judy says, still sounding chipper as she reaches for the radio. “Dispatch, Officers Hopps and Wilde are 10-97. Investigating now.”

“10-4 Hopps, be careful you guys.” 

Judy and Nick each grab their tranquilizer guns and Tasers, slipping them into their respective holsters as a precaution against the mammal being possibly hostile. They egress the vehicle, their doors echoing around the abandoned wharf when they shut behind the duo. 

“Alright, you go around the left, I’ll go right and we can meet at the back of the building.” Judy says, her ears standing alert while her nose twitched with anticipation. 

Nick, on the other hand, didn’t let his usual snug grin disappear, “Whatever you say Officer Toot-Toot.” He chuckles and walks over to the side of the building, his paws shoved into his pockets.

Judy simply rolls her eyes and starts to walk towards the opposite side, eyes scanning the ground and windows to try and spot any signs of a burglar. She found signs of a broken in window and peeks in, seeing that glass had landed inside of the dark and spacious interior. Picking up her handheld radio, she changes it to the channel for use between individual officers. “Nick, I have a broken in window over here no sign of an intruder.” She says, the radio chirping as she releases the button. After a brief moment of static speaker comes to life with Nick’s voice. 

“I don’t have anything over here, just some Bug Burga wrappers and-OOF“ He is cut off by a loud crack that sounded like a board hitting something and a pained yelp from him when the radio suddenly went silent. 

Judy’s eyes go wide and she goes running to the side of the building her partner had gone to investigate, Taser drawn and safety off. She rounds the corner and spots Nick lying on the ground and not moving. She forgets all her response training and dashes over to him. 

“Nick!” she whimpered, shaking him and breathing a soft sigh of relief when she touches him to feel that he still was breathing. Grabbing her radio, she changes the setting to the channel for dispatch and presses the talk button. “Hopps to dispatch, Code nine, Officer Wilde is injured and unconscious send an ambu-“ Before could finish, she felt a sharp pain on the back of her head before the world suddenly went dark around her. The last thing Judy could hear was Clawhauser frantically calling her name over the speaker before she passed out. 

Judy awoke to a dark room, one that didn’t smell familiar and felt damper than the Rainforest District. She blinked once and winced when she felt the stinging pain on the back of her head, which made her reached up and touch the spot gingerly to feel where her fur had become crusted with her blood. With a light groan, she looks around the room in an attempt to get her bearings. 

Her eyes had adjusted to the dark by now and she could make out that she was in a small enclosed room one wall having prison style bars separating it from another where a mammal was sitting on the floor, glancing around much like she was. On the wall perpendicular to the bars was a single door that didn’t have a knob or handle to open it with, meaning she was stuck here.

Judy lets out an exasperated sigh, kicking the metal chair that was in the room with her and running a paw over her neck to find a tight rubber collar that was lined with some sort of wiring. On the side of the collar was a box housing the battery pack, receiver, and stun probes which instantly made the rabbit realize with horror that she was wearing a predator collar. “Oh cheese and crackers…” she whimpered, suddenly aware of how tightly it was on her neck. 

“J-Judy?” a hoarse voice calls at her, snapping her from her thoughts.

“Nick?” she mutters, ears having perked straight up and ignoring the pain in her head she rushed to the bars. “Are you okay?!” 

Before he could respond, the lights snapped on noisily, temporarily blinding the duo. Judy shielded her eyes from the obnoxious light and perked her ears when she heard the crackle of a loudspeaker. “Well, well…look who’s finally awake.” Said a familiar high pitched voice. 

“Bellwether?” Judy stammered out. “You’re supposed to be in prison!” 

“Oh please, you didn’t actually think I’d be behind bars forever did you?” the diminutive sheep chuckled. “You see, I have more friends than just Doug and his lackeys and some of them are in positions to make sure I never even saw the inside of a cell.” 

“So now what? You’re going to kill us for revenge?” Judy shouts with a defiant tone. 

“Where’s the fun in that? No, I won’t kill you, I plan on breaking you. You ruined me and now I’m going to destroy you.” 

With that, the doors in front of each of their cells opens up and shows another room. “Both of you, go now.” Bellwether says over the speakers again. Both Nick and Judy stared defiantly at the doors. “Oh? You want to do this the hard way?” The sheep laughs, her voice practically dripping with malice. A piercing beep could be heard from the collars and a shock runs through it and into both Judy and Nick, making them cry out and drop to their knees as they lost control of their bodies. After a moment, the shock stops and leaves them both panting and with tears rolling down their cheeks. “Wonderful invention, the pred collars. You see, that was just the low setting, designed to keep predators from getting to emotional.” Bellwether lets out a giggle. “We almost had these instated before you had to go and mess with everything. Now I can only use it for my little game…so unless you want another shock, I suggest you do as your told.”

Nick and Judy both look at each other, and complied to the sheep’s demands. They enter the next room that was slightly bigger than their cells but was set up much like the last. In this room, there was a flat screen TV bolted to the corner of each cell, showing a live feed of another room that was full of both predator and prey cubs, each of them also wearing the shock collars. On Judy’s side of the room, there was a table with a .38 caliber revolver sitting on it, similar to the one that was often gifted to police chiefs as a ceremonial piece. Judy could only look at it with disdain, never having liked firearms, even if she did have to train with them. Nick simply had the TV in his room, which made Judy reach the conclusion that he was going to have to watch whatever Bellwether planned for Judy. 

“Good, now that you’re here, I want to invite another mammal to our little party. Judy, I’m sure you’re familiar with James Wolfson. Oh, you might know him better by his nickname, The Bloody Fang.” The sheep laughs as a large scarred wolf enters the view of the TV. “See Judy, he’s here to make sure you play by the rules, and our little class here is going to help him.”

Judy’s eyes went wide when she saw the serial killer. While he was imprisoned before she joined the ZPD, his case was the one they trained her investigation class with at the academy and she knew very well that he was perfectly capable of killing all those cubs without a moment of remorse. One glance at Nick confirmed he knew exactly who this was as well, and she could see how it pained him to be sitting there helpless. 

“In fact, just in case you’ve forgotten what this mammal is capable of, I think a little demonstration is in order.” The evil sheep laughed as the wolf stomped over and scooped up a Jaguar cub by the scruff of her neck with a demented grin on his lips. Judy could only look in horror and cry out to Bellwether, begging for her to call it off but it was no use. The young cub was sobbing and whimpering, unable to get away from the much stronger wolf. Judy put her paws to her mouth and tears began to well in her eyes but she was unable to look away as the wolf clenched his jaws around the cub’s throat and slowly squeezed down which made the cub’s sobs change into a strangled gurgle that made Nick’s stomach turn into knots. The fur around the cub’s throat slowly turned red as the blood flowed from the bite and the corners of the wolf’s mouth tugged upwards in a twisted smile before the wolf ripped his jaws from the cub’s throat, a spray of blood painting the walls and over the other cubs who had all screamed and began to cry at the sight.  
Judy could hear Nick retch and throw up in the corner of his cell, having watched as the wolf chewed the thick bite of flesh and swallowed. They watched in horror as the wolf dropped the now lifeless cub on the floor. “Kimberly Spots, 8 years old. Her death is on you Judy.” The evil little sheep said with condescension. “As will the rest of the cubs in that room if you don’t play along.” 

Judy could only stand and cry as she heard the former mayor taunt her. Staring helplessly on the screen as the monster finished his ‘meal’ and couldn’t help but cringe when Wolfson turned to glare at the other children, licking his lips hungrily. “Tut, tut James, you must be patient. I promise you’ll be duly rewarded soon enough. ” Dawn chides, her visage replacing the feed of the cubs in the room with the killer. “You see Judy, you have a choice to make.” The sheep grins, not looking any different than the day Judy saw to her arrest. 

As if on cue, the door opens and a pair of rams toss one of the cubs into the lone chair that stood in the center of the room before stomping out. Judy didn’t even think of grabbing the gun and instead went to the cub, a small male bunny that seemed to wet himself out of fear, and wrapped her arms around him. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” She says with a gentle smile, rubbing her paw down the kit’s back.

“Is it Judy?” the sheep laughs, “See, I never did tell you that choice you had to make. That gun on the table, it has a single bullet in there and it will determine the fate of you, nick, and all the cubs that are locked in the room with the hungry wolf. See, here’s your options. You can put a bullet in poor little Timothy’s head and I let you, all those cubs, and officer Wilde go free. Or you can decide to let Timothy live and I let Wolfson feast on the rest of them that are in the other room here, your call.” She lets out a laugh before speaking again. “Oh, and if you decide to get all noble and put the bullet in your own head, I’ll kill them all and Officer Wilde anyway. You have an hour to decide, and to speed your decision along, everyone’s collars are going to go off every five minutes.”

Before either Judy or Nick could retort, the collar went off, including the ones that the cubs were wearing, as if to accentuate the very real danger they were in. Judy looked down to the cub who seemed to be making an honest effort to get away from her, rightfully terrified of the rabbit officer’s decision. Judy tried at first to comfort the bunny kit, but was failing so she turned to Nick, tears welling in her eyes as she took his paws in hers through the bars. “What are we going to do? I can’t kill him, but the others will die…”  
“I don’t know, Carrots…HNNNGH.” They both double over as the collars go off again, though the setting seemed far lower, almost as if Bellwether didn’t want to overwhelm them so they could think.

Judy glanced over to the frightened bunny kit that had huddled in the corner of the room to stay as far away from her as possible and it simply broke her heart. “Nick…I…I don’t know…it’s selfish to sacrifice the many for the one…” She says with a whimper, hardly believing the words that came out of her mouth. She turns from her partner and stared at the gun on the table.

“Carrots…Judy…Listen to me. We can’t sink to her level…we c-hnnngh-can beat her.” He says, fighting against the shock of the collar.

“We have less than an hour before she kills us all anyway. We can’t beat her if we’re dead Nick.” She shouts at him, feeling her heart tear in two when his ears fall flat against his head and the look of hurt on his face. “I’m sorry Nick.” She says, heading to the table and picking up the revolver. It was almost funny to her, the thing bore the weight of being able to kill but it felt so light in her paws. She opened the cylinder and found the single bullet in it before pulling the hammer back. 

“Judy…Judy please don’t do it.” He begs, falling to his knees as he watches her approach the lone table in the room.

She ignores the plaintive cries of her partner and best friend, tears rolling down her cheeks as she approaches the kit who had gone wide-eyed at seeing her approach. “Timothy, please I hope that you can forgive me, b-but so many more will die if you live.” She whimpers, her voice shaky and her body trembling as she raised the gun to be level with the kit’s head, following her academy training for a kill shot. “I’m sorry…” she whimpers and squeezes the trigger, nearly deafened by the loud bang while she watches the kit’s body jolt then fall lifeless to the floor. 

She felt her body go numb all over, falling to her knees as she simply stares at the kit’s body. She barely registered the sound of the cell wall sliding into one of the walls and letting Nick rush to her. All she could do was lose herself to the sobs that began to wrack her body, a heart wrenching wail escaping her lips as she hugs herself to Nick who could only hold her in his arms while he looked over to the body of the kit she had just slain.

“Mmmm, I gotta say, I’m shocked Judy…I honestly expected you to be unable to pull the trigger and be forced to pick Timothy there. Oh well…you are free to leave, but know this Judy, it was me who broke you.” The sheep says before cutting the feed and a loud buzz could be heard as the steel doors that held them in the room were opened to free them.  
Nick let her go gently, “Carrots…” he says with a soft and gentle voice, “Come on, let’s go get the cubs and call Bogo.” He finishes, carefully bringing her up to her feet guiding her out of the room and out of sight of the kit. They were quick to secure the cubs, finding a key to their collars as well as their gear which the used to radio for help after Nick found out they were in another warehouse in the Canal District. 

It didn’t take long for them to be found and escorted to the hospital to have their wounds checked and the two dead cubs to be brought to the morgue. Judy was completely silent the whole time, everything just feeling surreal to her numb body as she was checked over and sat in an ambulance. She barely registered Nick relaying the story of what happened to Bogo before she was carted off in to the hospital.

“I don’t like this Wilde…I don’t know if she’ll ever recover psychologically from this.” The chief says with a sigh, his usual gruff demeanor gone completely as he watched the shell of his best officer being carted off to the hospital. 

“She’s strong sir, I have no doubts she’ll recover…but I don’t think she’ll ever be the same again…all we can do is help her get through this."

“I hope you’re right Wilde…however, I’m putting you both on paid leave until you get an all clear from the therapist.” The chief gives him a glare to show he wasn’t going to be argued on this. “I want you go get those head wound’s checked so ride in the next ambulance that’s headed out.

“Yes sir.” He replies, turning to walk with his paws stuffed in his pockets. 

“And Wilde…take care of her, the thing you both had to go through, it’ll destroy a lesser mammal.”

Nick nods slowly and turns to head to next ambulance, leaving Bogo to wonder if he had just lost his best officers.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! As promised, here is the glossary. 
> 
> Code 2 - Priority Call, Answer immdiately  
> B&E - Breaking and Entering  
> 912 - Suspicious Person sighting  
> 10-4 - Copy that  
> 10-97 - Officers arriving on scene  
> Code 9 - Officer in need of immediate assistance


End file.
